Astronomers have discovered an unexpected tail in the galaxy M61

The first photo taken by the Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile showed a previously unnoticed feature in the structure of the galaxy M61, which may explain its mysterious properties. The telescope has detected a stellar stream emanating from M61, which may indicate that it once destroyed a much smaller galaxy. This was reported on November 8 by Scientific American magazine.

"This is the first stellar stream detected using the Rubin telescope. And this is just a harbinger of the fact that we have discovered many similar objects," said Sarah Pearson, an astrophysicist at the University of Copenhagen.

The galaxy, dubbed Messier 61, was discovered in 1779 and is located in the Virgo cluster. Due to its high activity, it has become the object of close attention of astronomers. The galaxy is a type of "star explosion" and is capable of creating stars at an extraordinary rate.

According to the author of the study and astronomer from San Jose State University in California, Aanor Romanowski, despite all the intensive studies, no one has been able to detect the star stream so far.

After analyzing the first image obtained from the world's largest digital camera, the image of the star stream was highlighted. This trail of light stretches for 55 kiloparsecs (180,000 light-years), making it one of the longest ever discovered. Scientists suggest that the stream of stars was formed by a collapsed dwarf galaxy that was swallowed up by M61. This interaction could enhance star formation in the galaxy and help explain some of its unusual features.

Blazar series: merging of black holes will help to measure the universe more accurately

How the study of mysterious space objects will allow the creation of sensors and devices of a new generation

Earlier, on November 4, Popular Science magazine reported the brightest black hole flare in history. According to the publication, the glow turned out to be brighter than 10 trillion suns and surpassed all previously observed phenomena of this kind. Scientists believe that the flare was caused by a so—called decent destruction event, a phenomenon when a black hole captures a nearby star with its gravitational field and begins to draw energy from it.

All important news is on the Izvestia channel in the MAX messenger.